10 replies so far

Drill first then shape it. To help, after you drill the main hole, take two strips of wood or metal and drill 2 holes into each. The holes in the strips should be spaced the same as the space between your block of wood and old handle when the handle is laying on the block. Run a pair of bolts through a strip, through the block and the old handle that is laying on top and through the second strip. Now you can draw the shape of the handle and the alignment will be correct for the bolt hole in the block.

Very nice pick up, I recently restored mine and bought some porter cable self adhesive sandpaper from 80 to 320. I put it on my table saw, but you can put it on any flat item you have with enough room to move the plane back and forth. Then I used automotive sandpaper up to 2000 to make it look pretty. For the tote just PM me your email and I have a plan that Lee Valley made for making your own tote. All you have to do it get a square block of whatever wood you want to make it out of and glue this 1 to 1 scale plan to the board and it shows you exactly what to do.

Granite slab also works well. If you know and cabinet guys, they might have some spare end splashes laying around. Even kitchen/vanity granite is pretty darn flat.

I have been starting a really rough sole at 180 grit. But only if it is extremely pitted. In most cases that would be a little too rough. The scratches from 180 is hard enough to hide, never mind anything courser. 220 & 400 should be fine for leveling a sole that is in fairly good shape. I took my number 4 plane up to 1000 grit, but I think it was severe overkill.

I rehab/sell planes (and other tools) and I start with 80 grit to get the sole flat. I then go to 150 and then to 220 to make it pretty. IMHO, anything finer than that is just for looks. I use 4×36 sanding belts from Grainger. They’re a little pricier, but they hold up and I do a fair amount of planes. If you’re only going to do this one plane, you could use the HF stuff, but it won’t last. I use spray adhesive and apply the belts to a 20” x 36” piece of melamine which I clamp to my bench. If you start with 150 grit, you’re going to be there a while. Using belts this long allow me to take nice long strokes and I can flatten a sole that only needs minor “tweaking” in about 15-20 minutes. Another advantage to using long strokes is that its easier (IME) to keep the sole square to the sides. One other thing I would point out is that you should keep a Vacuum handy since the sand paper will load up pretty quickly.

For the sole, I do about the same as Dave. If the plane is really bad (not very often) i start on the belt sander to get it close.

Making totes. Make sure you drill the holes first. I typicaly start the countersink hole for the nut, and finish it after shaping to get it exact.

Use the template but a bit of advice. The angle of the threads for bench planes are not exact. Check the angle against your plane before shaping it and get it exact. We’ve all seen bent tote rods. That bend is to compensate for the differnce in the angle. (I learned this from a fellow LJ). I slightly modify the tote to reflect the exact angle before cutting the thing out.

I also struggled to get the front hole on a #5 and larger plane. I’ve found the easiest way to get it exact is with a broken sole. I dropped a #5 on the concrete and shattered it way beyond repair. I was heart broken, but it became my ’’front hole template’’. I drilled a pilot hole all the way through, and now just hook up the tote and drill it exact.

For sanding I have an old transitional frame. I hook up the tote, hold the frame in the vice, and can sand with a long piece of paper (like a lath strip). Any base would work, but the trasitional frame doesn’ty have the wider hump to get in the way.